How to access and use Galaxy S7 developer options?

This guide explains what developer options in Galaxy S7 and S7 edge can do and when you need to use developer options. You can unhide and enable Galaxy S7 developer options by tapping the build number 7 times. This guide also explains all items in Galaxy S7 developer options.

Galaxy S7 developer options are some settings for app developers to test apps under some simulated environment in Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. For example, to test apps with limited available RAM.

In recent versions of Android, some complicated settings, and some settings for seldom-used backward compatibility were also moved/added to developer options.

Since Android Jelly Bean 4.2, developer options are hidden. This was done deliberately so that users will not accidentally enable some settings. And most Android users do not need developer options at all.

But for app developers and a few owners, they may need to access and use Galaxy S7 developer options to test some apps or try some settings. For example, some owners may want to run a few ADB commands. They then have to enable USB debugging in Galaxy S7 developer options.

Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge have the identical developer options. So this guide applies to both Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge although we took screenshots from Galaxy S7 edge.

Do you need Galaxy S7 developer options?

Please note, for most owners of Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, you may not need to access developer options at all.

Galaxy S7 developer options do NOT solve any of your phone problems. If you have any issues with your Galaxy S7 or S7 edge, seldom the developer options can solve them.

And some settings in Galaxy S7 developer options may affect the performance or functions of Galaxy S7 and S7 edge.

You may need Galaxy S7 developer options if

you are an app developer to test apps on Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge.

you want to to use ADB commands (you need to enable USB debugging).

you want to force RTL layout.

you want to adjust animation speed or turn off animations when opening apps.

you want to keep mobile data always on.

you want to turn the Galaxy S7 screen on all the time when it is connected to a charger.

Anyway, if you are not sure, you may not need Galaxy S7 developer options.

How to enable Galaxy S7 developer options?

As mentioned, by default, developer options in Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are hidden. You cannot find it in Settings before you enable (unhide) them.

Networking

Keep mobile data turned on. Keep mobile data on even when WiFi is in use. This will drain battery quicker.

USB configuration. You can set USB connection mode as Charging only, MTP, PTP, RNDIS, Audio source or MIDI. Please read this guide for more details.

Input

Show touches.

Show pointer location.

Drawing

Show screen updates.

Show layout boundaries.

Force RTL layout.

Window animation scale.

Transition animation scale.

Animation duration scale.

Simulated secondary displays.

Hardware -accelerated rendering

Fore GPU rendering.

Show GPU view updates.

Show hardware layers udpate.

Debug GPU overdraw.

Show non-rectangular clips.

Turn on 4x MSAA

Turn off hardware overlays.

Simulate color space.

Media

Prevent USB audio routing.

Monitoring

Strict mode.

Show CPU usage. The real-time CPU usage will be overlayed on your screen.

GPU rendering profile.. You can choose Off (default), Show on screen as bars, or Show in ADB shell dumpsys gfxinfo.

Turn on OpenGL traces.

Applications

Do not keep activities. This will NOT reduce memory usage or battery usage for the app. It may slow down the app significantly. It is for developer to test app behavior with constrained resources (e.g., limited memory).

Limited background processes. You can choose standard (default), no background processes, up to 1 process, up to 2 processes, up to 3 processes and up to 4 processes. Again. do not play this setting if you have battery life issues with Galaxy S7 or S7 edge.